Though Rocksteady’s swan song, Batman: Arkham Knight, swooped onto consoles and PC earlier in the year, fans of the Caped Crusader can still look forward to the one-two punch of Batman: Return to Arkham and the PSVR-exclusive Batman: Arkham VR launching before the year’s end. The latter of which is handheld by Rocksteady and may go down as the studio’s final entry into the Arkham series, according to Producer Dax Ginn.
Chatting to Eurogamer at last weekend’s EGX 2016, Ginn reflected on ten years of crafting top-tier superhero titles – Rocksteady’s Batman games are often cited as some of the best the genre has ever produced, and rightfully so – before revealing that, at least for now, the studio has been afforded some breathing space by Warner Bros. before settling on its next creative venture. If it hasn’t already, that is.
“To be honest I don’t really know. We’re in a very enviable position where we have some time and space to decide what we’re doing next,” he continued. “We can sit back and think what our dream game would be, and we have Warner Bros.’ support to do that.”
However that may be, the developer went on to say that there is currently a bittersweet feeling lingering at Rocksteady, but stopped short of confirming whether the studio plans to retire the Batman for good.
“I think there’s a little bit of sadness on the team. It feels like… breaking up? [The mood] is really split – there’s a feeling in the office like, it’s definitely time to do something else – we all accept that. But we all know Batman so well – we all feel comfortable in the Arkhamverse.
“We’re definitely letting go of that comfort blanket and putting ourselves in the position where whatever we do next is going to feel very different. There’s always an anxiety associated with change and that’s where we want to be. We want to feel uncomfortable because we want to make awesome stuff.”
Given how Arkham Knight‘s marketing campaign championed the action threequel as a true trilogy-capper, at the very least, Rocksteady looks set to place its beloved series in stasis for the time being. Rumors continue to fly that the studio will soon shift resources over to a Justice League game to coincide with the launch of Zack Snyder’s ensemble piece, but there’s nothing to report from that front.
Next up for Rocksteady is the launch of Batman: Arkham VR on October 13. It’ll be followed in quick succession by the release of Batman: Return to Arkham on October 18.